On Wednesday evening, stories broke that Donald Trump had reached agreement with Democratic leaders on a plan for restoring DACA and keeping Dreamers in the United States. For a few hours, hundreds of thousands of young people directly affected—and millions of Americans who support them—felt a tremendous sense of relief.
And then …
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Trump’s morning twitter session brought the idea of a rational solution crashing down. White House aides from Wednesday’s meeting indicated that Trump and Democrats had reached a bargain that would protect the young immigrants whose lives were upended when Trump dismantled DACA. It was understood that Trump would continue to go after his much-discussed “wall” however …
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But that was Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, Trump seemed to wash his hands of the deal, repudiated everything he’d said the previous day, and was back to an … unmitigated mess. Between the White House statement Wednesday night, and Trump’s prolonged Twitter stream on Thursday morning, it seems impossible to tell if there is any deal, any plan, or any idea of Trump’s next action. What happened?
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The immediate reaction to the announcement that Trump had agreed to allow Dreamers to remain the United States was a predictable flood of vitriol from the right. Not only did alt-Reich web sites explode in anger, the anti-immigrant faction of Republicans joined in the attack—though some tweets were quick to disappear when Trump made his morning backflip.
The extreme reaction from the right seemed to send Trump reeling back from any hint of a deal.